STRANGE WEEK

This has been a weird week so far...not bad, just weird. Monday, Don went fishing so I took Nate shopping (haha) What was weird about the day is how compliant he was. We have been struggling over the last few months to get him to walk more on his own instead of carrying him everywhere. For one, he's a big boy and it's too hard to hold him for very long and two, he needs to learn to walk more on his own anyway. So, we've tried to be consistent, firm and loving every time he's tested us on this. On Monday, I took him to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast and automatically tensed up preparing to deal with a tantrum when I told him I wanted him to walk with me. Instead, he got out of the car all happy and walked all the way up to the table with me. Not only that but he willingly walked everywhere else we went that day, reaching out for our hands. He also did not cry ONCE the entire day. That's amazing considering he barely got a nap and had meals later than usual. He was just so mellow.

I finally got around to applying for his social security card too. Kept forgetting about it. After waiting an hour & a half, I brought all my paperwork to the window and the guy kept insisting that I did not have the correct document. I protested, telling him this is all we received but he barely looked at them and I couldn't figure out what he was wanting. He was about ready to send me home when another employee intervened and told him that the document he was holding was what he needed. Then the guy looked at me and said, "This is what I was asking for". I'm thinking...then why were you telling me it was incorrect??!!! ARGGHH!

Then, while I was waiting for him to complete the paperwork, Nate was getting antsy and started running off. I told him to sit down under the counter and stay there until we were done. He started to get up, so I told him "no" and also gave him the sign for "no", which is basically the peace sign and then you bring your 2 fingers down over your thumb. He stayed put until it was time to leave. As I walked out the door, a man asked me, "What were you telling the child when you did this?"...and he extended his arm with his hand clenched in a fist. I couldn't figure out what he meant and thought he was asking if I did a fist bump with Nate. Then I realized what he meant and I told him I was saying "no" in sign language to him and showed him the sign for it. The guy asked me "That means "No"???"...as if he didn't believe it. That's when I realized I think he thought I was threatening Nate with my fist!! Good grief...I can't even tell my child "no" in public and use sign language without someone questioning my actions. Needless to say, I was glad to leave that office.

Ever since Monday, Nate has been very good about walking with us in public and walking over to one of us to kiss us goodnight before bed (yes that was a daily struggle too which resulted in tantrums). Now that we've overcome this obstacle, another one pops up. This time, he's starting to push our hands away and he gets upset if he sees us sitting together or hugging each other in front of him. He starts crying and tries to push or pull our hands off...almost as though he's jealous that we're showing attention to each other but not to him at the moment. So we have to work on that behavior. He's also not wanting to eat his veggies anymore which results in longer meal times because he can't get down until he's eaten most of them or sometimes a timeout if he flat out refuses and starts crying. The challenges of "training up a child in the way he should go"!

On the good side, he is learning and progressing in so many ways. He and Harvard are starting to become buddies. Harvard will lay on his blanket chewing on his toy and Nate will climb onto him and sit on his back like he's a horse. This doesn't last for long because Harvard will buck him off and Nate just gets up laughing. So Harvard lies down on a different corner of the blanket and the whole thing starts over again. It's hilarious. I can't stop staring at him because it seems that every month, he just gets even more beautiful and adorable.